Ministry of higher education, science and innovations termiz state pedagogical institute the faculty of foreign language and literature

This course paper is devoted to the description of British fantasy fiction and their impacts and influences to the English and the world literature. It is clear, that William Shakespeare’s works are considered the root of English language and literature’s development.
The aim of the work is to present an overview of the features of British fantasy fiction in 20th century.
The tasks of the investigation include:
- to explain Fantasy fiction and it’s role in the world fiction;
- to explain A brief history of the fantasy fiction in the British literature;
- to review XX century fantasy writers;
- to review XXI century fantasy writers.
The main language material of the work has been gathered from the Internet sources, literary works and the textbooks in English literature of various authors. Thus, writers, their works, the evidence of modernity in words, their definitions and examples in which the words are used, are taken from the authentic English sources, so that the evidence of the research results could be doubtless.
The issues raised in this research have been a subject of discussion of William Shakespeare’s comedies and other plays for more than a hundred years, but until now there is no clear understanding why this interrelation takes place.
The theoretical and practical value of the paper lies in its applicability to the English literature, General Linguistics and practical English classes.
The structure of the work consists of the Introduction, three plans, conclusion and the bibliography.
An allied science to comedies of Shakespeare is related to English literature which also studies their art, the evidences of their impacts to readers and the inner structure of the works.


CHAPTER ONE. FANTASY FICTION AND BRITISH FANTASY FICTION IN THE 20TH CENTURY
1.1. Fantasy fiction and it’s role in the world fiction
Fantasy, both in literature and out of it, is an enormous and seductive subject. Its association with imagination and with desire has made it an area difficult to articulate or to define, and indeed the value of fantasy has seemed to reside in precisely this resistance to definition, in its free-floating and escapist qualities. Literary fantasies have appeared to be ‘free’ from many of the conventions and restraints of more realistic texts: they have refused to observe unities of time, space and character, doing away with chronology, three dimensionality and with rigid distinctions between animate and inanimate objects, self and other, life and death.
Fantasy literature mainly draws its inspiration from the past; either referring to ancient worlds or borrowing elements of these worlds and myths to create new imaginary environments.¹ The fantasy literature that is examined in this thesis, the fantastic worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien and J. K. Rowling, have more to do with the well-known notion of fairytale or else fairy-story. In these stories one can meet not only elves and fays but also witches, dwarfs, dragons, trolls or giants; mythical creatures, enchanted mortal men as well as the magic of nature and scenery, water, stone, sun. Fantasy is a gate to a realm of mystery, adventures and an alluring strangeness that the real world lacks.
It is probably the literary genre with the longest and richest heritage; in fact fantasy could be considered the progenitor from which the other literary forms came. Stories characterized by supernatural elements existed in spoken form before the advent of written literature. This oral tradition enabled many ancient myths and stories to be maintained, remembered and conveyed from generation to generation, altered or not. The same motifs and patterns travel throughout the years and the generations, creating new fairytales enriched and modified each time by each historical and social background; provoking a general feeling of repetition.
The expert in the field of fantasy, J.R.R Tolkien, borrowing Dasent’s words and adjusting them to his thoughts, gives an aptly shaped idea of fairy-stories and fantasy. According to Tolkien there is a “Cauldron of Story” which is continually boiling; throughout the years several cooks select bits dainty or undainty to put in it. The fairy-stories are likened to the soups coming out of this cauldron.
Fantasy stories are complex mixtures of several elements realistic or supernatural which there is no need to figure out in detail. It is not the origins that plays the most important role but “the effect produced now by these old things in the stories. For one thing they are now old and antiquity has an appeal in itself”.
Tolkien’s work Lord of the Rings brought a revolution to the standards of fantasy literature concerning imagination and popularity. Fantasy novels sales benefited from the remarkable critical and popular success of both the books and the film adaptations. One example of a more recent, modern fantasy sequel is Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling which attracts a huge readership but lacks the critical acceptance and success of Tolkien’s books. I will look more closely at these works in the second part of the paper.
The term ‘fantasy’ has been applied to any literature that introduces realms and elements other than human, such as fairytales, myths, legends or science fiction stories. Fantasy is often jumbled with science fiction; the two genres may be considered close relatives but they are not one and the same thing. Some would argue that the difference between the two literary forms is minimal. Both explore other realities than our own, sharing the same base, imagination. Reading fantasy literature and science fiction the reader delves into various imaginary environments such as the ancient past, the distant future, lost worlds, other planets or fantasy Earths. Where Science fiction differentiates itself is the setting and the time that it uses. As Samuel Delany puts it “Fantasy treats what cannot happen, science fiction treats what has not happened”. Many writers have worked in both genres, while writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin have written works that tend to blur the boundaries between the two.
Science fiction has its origins in the idea of extrapolating society in the future. It is maybe the most socially reflective genre, this is the reason why literary scholars are more familiar with it. They are interested in the deep meanings hidden in the high-tech future. Science fiction gets its inspiration from the past, the present and the future; sets its imaginary world in the future; but comments mainly on the present time and society. As Joanna Russ defined it “Science fiction is ‘what if”- literature. Science fiction shows things not as they characteristically and habitually are but as they might be, and for that ‘might be’ the author must offer a rational, serious, consistent explanation”.
Science fiction is everywhere today, cinema, literature, video games, television but also in contemporary architecture and the press. We see science fiction around us, in the modern lines of the buildings which resembles the ones of future films, in the stories about mysterious flying objects in the press and even in music and the arts generally. As fantasy literature, many times science fiction has been blamed for being a light and escapist kind of literature which functions as commercial brainwashing. Yet, science fiction is in another sense still respected by the academic world.
Science fiction stories are not set in the future only for the sake of escaping the restraints of reality; they constitute a kind of metaphor or allegory and should be read accordingly. Science fiction is a an outlandish literary genre that poses questions on many controversial and notorious issues about humanity, such as cloning, robots, cyborgs, aliens etc. In this way it articulates contemporary fears as well as plays out ideological tensions around class, race, gender and sexuality.
It is evident that Science Fiction and Fantasy are similar but also different. My main concern at this point is not to make clear the distinction between the two or give a workable definition, this would result in an extensive disquisition, but to look into the interesting points that come out of this comparison. Magic or Technology, myth or science, Science fiction and Fantasy are adored or scorned for the same reasons: the imaginary elements, the questioning on controversial issues and of course the escapist atmosphere.
Despite all the tradition that fantasy carries and the social commenting of science fiction, both genres retain today an image of literary inconsequence dangling between adult fiction and fiction for children. Moreover they are occasionally blamed for provoking passive escapism and insulting religious beliefs. Fantasy - as well as science fiction - are more frequently lumped in with romance novels than taken seriously, or even at times considered pernicious literary genres. The fact that a remarkable number of readers actually enjoy fantasy and science fiction, as well as the reasons of their appeal, are usually overlooked and disregarded.² I am going to deal with what makes fantasy so attractive briefly below and in more detail further on when analyzing the books; but before moving on to this, I must stress a crucial point. I would like to question the role of fantasy as a genre mainly addressed to children.
Fantasy literature is often misperceived as a literary genre naturally appropriate for children. The reason why this idea has appeared is the connection of the genre with the common fairytales. Indeed fantasy literature resembles the patterns and form of fairytales but they are not the same; the notions are confused and fantasy literature is once more labelled less serious, childish kind of literature.
To prove my point let me hypothetically assume that fantasy literature is indeed addressed mainly to children. The argument for this is that children’s credulity as well as the lack of experience and knowledge makes them an easier readership. They can believe in the existence of dragons, elves or aliens while reading a story, without needing the willing suspension of disbelief. The connection of the nursery with fantasy literature and fairytales is another cause of this misconception. Nurses usually choose folktales or folklore to narrate to children either because everybody is familiar with them through oral tradition, or because these tales are indeed exciting. After all everything supernatural seems extraordinary not only to children’s but also to adult’s eyes.
Thus, if we consider children a special group of human beings with different qualities and needs, we may argue that they need a completely different treatment and a certain kind of literature to read as well; but is this so? Partially it is; children need help and care to grow up but growing up means also introducing them to the world of adults. They should receive not only a partial knowledge but controlled multilateral input. Fantasy literature is a genre rich in symbolism, through imagination it expresses and comments on various issues of human society. Its aim is not only to escape from everyday reality but mostly to see reality and society from a different angle. There are many hidden meanings in the mysterious worlds of the past and the future, meanings difficult to comprehend even for adults.
As far as credulity is concerned, the attribute that adults are supposed to lack, it is not needed in an imaginary environment created by a skillful writer. The art of the story maker creates worlds that, as J.R.R. Tolkien asserts, make the reader a “subcreator”. The willing suspension of disbelief is easily achieved in a successful imaginary environment; the reader delves into a world where everything is real because the reader him/herself wants it to be so, everything is believable. If the feeling of disbelief arises the reader stops being a “subcreator” and watches the story from the outside.
In contrast to children readers, adults consciously choose to read Fantasy or Science fiction because they are attracted to it or interested in it. Children (at least of young age) cannot choose what they read, they read what is imposed on them by the adults in order to enrich their knowledge. The fact that this kind of literature is imposed on children by adults does not necessarily mean that all children enjoy fantasy; some do and some others do not. As happens with adults, the preference for imaginary stories and narratives is more a matter of individual taste than a matter of age. Children who are fond of fantasy and science fiction will most probably turn to adults of the same taste.
In a nutshell, I believe that we should neither categorize literature according to age appropriateness nor confuse fantasy literature with fairytales. Imagination applies to everybody. I am not saying of course that fantasy literature is not a genre suitable for children, most of the times it actually is. The key point that I want to stress here is that it is not a genre addressed only to children and it is not going to be considered as such in this thesis.
Finally let us turn to the question stated above, which constitutes one of the main themes of this paper: why fantasy literature is so appealing? What makes it popular? If we are to speak generally about this kind of literature (both fantasy and science fiction) and its appeal, we can locate some common characteristics responsible for this popularity. Both genres are based on imagination, meaning mental image-making or in other words ‘unreality’. This notion of the unreal gives a feeling of freedom from the dominant fact and reality; it is the extraordinary, the unusual that takes the reader by surprise and allures him. As J.R.R. Tolkien argues “That the images are of things not in the primary world (if that indeed is possible) is a virtue not a vice”. Imagination and fantasy are natural human needs and appealing by nature.
As has been mentioned oftentimes, fantasy literature and science fiction are two everyday literary genres that do not deal with the everyday at all. The heroes and protagonists in these stories are nonrealistic exceptional characters, the scenery is an imaginary one that cannot be found in the real world and the plot resembles the one of the happy-ending myth. How is it then possible for the reader to identify; to feel a part of the narrative and not be bored? Although a fantasy work does not deal with real facts it is not totally imaginary either. Every imaginary world in order to be effective and have an impact on the reader must have a correspondence with the real one. Fantasy is deliberately taking real-life situations and introducing them into a world where unexpected things happen. In other words, the imaginary environments introduced in science fiction and fantasy literature are a kind of fantastic simulations of reality, shaped in this way deliberately. Thus, the reader can become a part of the narrative and can identify as well, since s/he functions as a sub-creator.
The controversial phenomenon of escapism that characterizes the literature of the fantastic is definitely one of the reasons which contributes to its rising popularity. Considered either as a negative or as a positive phenomenon, escapism is the main lure in this kind of literature. People today seek for a way to take a break from the everyday world that they live in and reading fantasy provides one. As it has been mentioned above, not everyone is well disposed to escapism. Many scholars have described it as a degraded form of fiction addressed to a shallow readership. In this paper though the opposite view will be supported; as Rosemary Jackson insightfully puts it: “Fantasy is not to do with inventing another non-human world: it is not transcendental. It has to do with inverting elements of this world, re-combining its constitutive features in new relations to produce something strange, unfamiliar and apparently ‘new’, absolutely ‘other’ and different.”
Everything stated above will be supported with examples in the following chapters.³ Of course not every literary work based on fantastic elements is equally valuable. Every work is going to be analyzed separately and every author individually. Apart from the general feeling of escapism and the element of the unreal and the extraordinary that is noticed throughout these books, the writing style of each author, the attitude towards religious matters, the social commenting as well as the symbolism used, are essential elements that determine the popularity of each literary work and makes it appealing or unappealing to the reader.